Rouhani says his government’s key failed to open locked social apps

TEHRAN – The Iranian president has said his government’s measures failed to remove ban on some social apps in the country.

Hassan Rouhani made the remarks during a live interview on the national TV late on Monday.

Referring to his 2013 electoral campaign symbol of a key to the country’s problems, the host asked the president if his key failed to open the locked apps and Rouhani said: “The 11th administration’s key [Rouhani’s previous administration] could not open them. Let’s hope the 12th government succeeds.”

When the host asked him how it is that government officials use Twitter and other banned social apps to communicate, Rouhani said: “I think your criticism applies there. But of course we at the executive branch did all we could to make [cyberspace] more accessible.”

“Some of these networks were locked before the 11th administration…. People may want to know that to keep this space open, the government took a lot of pains.”

Commenting on why social apps were blocked during recent riots in the country, Rouhani said: “It is possible that at some point this happens due to urgent needs. But we did not let it become permanent. Some people may hypothesize that we were looking for some excuse to lock some social networks forever. But that is not true. Our attempt is to make sure people can use this space.”